The United States has announced an additional $267 million in funding to support efforts to contain the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The US State Department said Wednesday that the latest funding brought Washington’s total direct health and humanitarian assistance for the outbreak to $887 million.
“To date, the United States government has provided $887 million in direct health and humanitarian assistance to combat the Ebola outbreak,” the department said in a statement.
It added that the United States remained the largest aid provider for the latest outbreak.
The funding announcement, made on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, also called on other countries with the capacity to increase their contributions to the response.
The State Department said the appeal was aimed at encouraging “capable nations to increase burden sharing to meet the urgency of the moment.”
Outgoing UN Secretary-General António Guterres last month appealed for an additional $1.1 billion to support efforts to contain the epidemic.
The outbreak continues to spread to new areas of the DRC, according to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF).
Congolese public health officials said the outbreak has killed more than 3,600 people and infected about 7,500 since mid-May, making it the country’s deadliest recorded Ebola epidemic.
